14 Kitchen Tip Quickies

How lucky! After last week’s list of readers kitchen tips, a fresh batch of tips have been pouring in over the past week from Tipnut readers–I’m thrilled with the response, thanks to everyone for sharing!

I’ve included the name of the person who submitted them beside each tip (thank you!).

14 Kitchen Tip Quickies

1. Your tip suggested thawing and then slipping the skins off. At the end of the season I pick off the green tomatoes, then keep them on the counter to ripen. Once they do I pop them into a zip top bag in the freezer. To use I throw the whole tomato into soups or stews. Freezing makes the skin fragile so it breaks down while cooking. Neat and easy! (Cheri)
2. The ranch dressing that is pre-made doesn’t taste nearly as good as the kind mixed at home, but I hate the large awkward container or bowl in my ‘fridge. So I marked out the measurements of the mix on an empty bottle of dressing (e.g., 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 cup of mayo). Now I pour the ingredients in the bottle and add the powder. I put the lid on, shake vigorously to completely mix it and have a perfect container to fit in the door of my refrigerator! (Kymberli)
3. Place raw fish on a coffee filter before steaming it and you can lift out the cooked fish in one piece, the fish won’t fall apart into pieces this way. (Eunice)
4. Mix pancake or waffle batter in a blender. Put all ingredients directly into the blender jar (I use the “just add water” variety of pancake batter, so for me it’s two ingredients) and blend. You can thicken or thin as needed while it’s blending. No lumps in the batter, and you can pour right from the blender jar/pitcher onto the griddle. Quick, easy cleanup, too. I just fill the jar with water and a little dishwashing liquid. (Robin)
5. Get two batches out of one recipe of marinating liquid by marinating meats in a sealed plastic bag. Put half the amount you usually would in the bag with the meat, remove all the air and seal the bag. Squish around the liquid and it will stretch a lot farther than it would if you marinated in a covered container. I like to make two batches at once, one is for that night’s meal and the other is frozen in the bag with the marinating sauce. (Leona)
6. Because of my husband’s heart condition, we try to eat “heart healthy”. When a soup recipe calls for heavy cream or half & half, I have found using 3/4 fat free milk & 1/4 half & half still gives you a wonderful flavor. Pair that with fat free broth & the soup always comes out flavorful & healthy. (Cheri)
7. I like a rather expensive wine, but have found if I mix it with a cheaper wine in the same family, the flavor is still quite good. I use approximately a 3 to 1 ratio. (Cheri)
8. For greasing your pans use a sandwich baggie over your hand with shortening or butter..works great, then just toss the baggie. (Tracey)
9. This is a trick I have used for years. I love peanut butter but hate spreading it on bread because the thickness of it tends to tear the bread. What I have done to resolve this problem is to freeze the bread and then spread the peanut butter over the bread. It’s quick and easy plus it will thaw by the time I want to eat it later that day. (Linda)
10. Here’s one for your kitchen equivalents chart, 1 large marshmallow equals 10 small ones. (Rhonda)
11. Try using biscuit dough for meat pie shells and top crusts, it’s delicious and you won’t go back to regular pie pastry! (Lorraine)
12. Use a spring loaded icecream scoop to measure shortening, it comes out cleanly and easily. It should measure an even 1/4 cup. (Patti)
13. Bang a head of lettuce hard against the countertop with the core side facing down. When you turn it over you can pop out the core very easily. (Amy)
14. Keep an unused toothbrush in the kitchen to scrub things like fresh mushrooms and corn on the cob to remove the silk. It comes in very handy! (Val)

Thanks so much for sharing these with Tipnut readers! If you’d like to share your favorite tips with everyone, please send it in by using the contact form.

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